According to estimates, the average American will spend ninety-thousand hours at work over their lifetime, or in fewer words, a third of their life working at home or in-house.
Since Americans spend a considerable amount of their waking life in their work environment, individuals must find ways to keep themselves working efficiently throughout the day to keep their productivity and creativity levels high.
From focusing on one task at a time to minimizing the risk of interruptions, working Americans can increase work productivity in many ways, one of the most overlooked being having an aesthetically pleasing office. Unbeknownst to most, the physical and non-physical characteristics of the environment in which you work can have significant phycological effects on your concentration and productivity levels, whether this is temperature, lighting, noise conditions, air quality, and more.
Working in a well-kept, aesthetically pleasing workspace is more likely to produce positive phycological effects than an unexciting work environment, which boosts employees’ willingness to come to work and the quality of the work they create. Fortunately, there are many ways to increase an office’s visual appeal, whether in the comfort of your home or in-house, from incorporating more natural light by using retractable screens to general tidying – read on for our top tips.
Let Natural Light Into The Office
Despite being part of a society that spends most of its time indoors, natural lighting is vital for our health and well-being; therefore, it is imperative to use successful office design to ensure that employees have as much access to natural light as possible. As well as fulfilling the natural human instinct to be outdoors, natural lighting provides many other helpful benefits for office workers, most notably helping them to function and feel better.
Feeling and functioning more positively at work enables employees to construct more innovative ideas, form better relationships with co-workers, have a higher energy output, and deal with problems when they arise more efficiently. On the other hand, not getting enough exposure to natural light can cause various debilitating health issues and other symptoms such as headaches, decreased vision, eyestrain, fatigue, and many more.
Start embracing natural lighting (and its benefits!) in your office today by re-arranging your desk so that it sits perpendicular to the window, using glass panels for private offices instead of interior walls, choosing sleek finishes that allow light to bounce off surfaces instead of matte, avoiding bulky furniture which can obstruct natural light, and installing retractable screens that will enable employees to control how dark or light the environment is at the push of a button.
Not only are retractable screens handy for letting more natural light into a space, but they are also an aesthetically pleasing way to increase privacy, reduce glare, protect furnishings, keep annoying insects at bay, and reduce the cost of monthly energy bills. Consider learning more by looking at the retractable screens from Marygrove, which are custom-made and designed to complement any home or office. Visit their website to peruse their complete list of offerings, discover their finance options, or book a free in-home appointment to see how their services could make your office more aesthetically pleasing today.
Keep The Area Tidy And Free Of Clutter
Designing the perfect office can take considerable time, effort, and – of course – money. Once you’ve accomplished the aesthetic you set out to achieve, the last thing you want to do is ruin your efforts by allowing the area to get untidy and full of clutter. As well as diminishing the overall look of your office, mess and general untidiness can simultaneously affect your productivity and concentration levels.
While at work, you’re already battling against time; your surroundings are the last thing you want to fight. Whether you’re pushing the already mounting piles of mugs into a tighter cluster on your desk to make room for another or shuffling through sheets and sheets of paper to find that one spreadsheet you swore you had five minutes ago but have since misplaced, it’s essential to keep your workspace tidy and clutter-free to get your work completed.
Whether in your house or at the office, your brain likes order, and although a little bit of disorganization can be acceptable if it continues, it can strain your mental health. From difficulty maintaining relationships to trouble focusing and many other effects, ensure that you don’t incur any of these difficulties by keeping on top of general tidying and removing non-work-related items from your space.
Add Personal Touches
Another way to make your in-house or home office more aesthetically pleasing is by making it feel more like home by adding a few personal touches. At times the commute to work has felt like descending into hell itself, a feeling that doesn’t get any better once we arrive at our physical workplace.
To alleviate these feelings, many office workers choose to personalize their office space with images of their loved ones, kids’ drawings, memories, and other personal effects to foster more positive emotions when coming to work.
Having a couple of pieces of home in the office can help those having an unproductive day by reminding them of the reasons why they do what they do, be it providing for a child, funding extra-curricular activities, funding trips abroad, etc., and encouraging them to focus on their final goal.
Instead of being a place where you feel imprisoned, a little bit of personalization can transform a work area into one where you feel motivated, focused, and driven to achieve the aims you set out to accomplish when you first started your role.
Consider testing the theory by decorating your desk with motivational quotes, pieces of art that bring a smile to your face, photographs of your previous accomplishments, images of your role models, small gifts from your friends or family members that make you laugh, anything that reminds you of your aspirations, and many more.
Include Greenery
A simple and cost-effective way to make your office more aesthetically pleasing is by including greenery wherever possible. Especially if natural lighting is limited, you can strive to bring the outdoors inside by designing the office with furnishings made from raw materials or by placing plants strategically.
As well as being a good source of decoration, plants are natural mood boosters, with studies reporting that spending less than twenty minutes around a plant is all it takes for people to start feeling more positive.